No One Is Excused From This | You’re Reading Books Wrong. Here’s A Better Way.
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Why does Ryan Holiday say no one is excused from studying?
Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. No one is excused from this. It might seem a bit out of character for a powerful general, a fierce warrior, to go everywhere with a book tucked under their arm. But in ancient Rome this was the figure that the great Scipio Emilianus cut, who was known for training in philosophy as arduously as he trained at arms. Flash forward to General James Mattis, a four-star general in the Marines, famously said that at no rank is a Marine excused from studying. In fact, he argued that it was essential that soldiers learned from the past, from the experiences of others, because the alternative was filling up body bags as they figured things out on their own.
Reading is a form of magic. It is time travel. It is a way to steal a march on our enemies. Through it, through the pages of a book, we gain the wisdom that others earned quite painfully. Through philosophy, as Seneca said, we can annex all the knowledge of the past into our own lives. Who would be so arrogant as to think they don't need to do that? Who would be so stupid as to want to learn by trial and error what they can learn from the trial and error of others? Books are literally manuals for living. They contain the wisdom of the collective human experience. Reading someone's thoughts, their feelings, their advice, their directions is a kind of shortcut for us. The advice, the facts, the perspective, the thoughts, this was things they took the time to write down so that others could benefit from them, so that others wouldn't have to make the same mistakes, so that others could live better lives, learning lessons this way rather than just repeating.
repeating it themselves. Yet what do most people do? Most people don't read. Most of us don't read enough. No one, no Marine, no leader, no citizen, no parent, no one who wants any measure of success is excused from studying. Not now, not ever. We must drink deeply from history, from philosophy, from books. journalists, from historians and geniuses. We must study the cautionary tales and the screw-ups. We must read about failures and successes. We must study and read constantly as a practice. Being a good reader isn't an easy thing. It's different than being taught how to read.
How does the Daily Stoic “Read to Lead” challenge help people become better readers?
That's something we talk about in the Daily Stoke Read to Lead Challenge, which today is your very last day to join. Tomorrow we're doing a QA with thousands of Stokes all over the world as we do a deep dive into the challenge. I'd love to have you join us. And if you sign up right now, you can get 20% off all the books in the challenge if you buy them from the painted porch. I can't wait to see you in there. I'd love for you to sign up for Daily Stoke Life so you get this challenge and all the challenges for free. That's at dailystoke life.com. But you can find out more at dailystoic dot com slash read to lead.
One of the cool things about the internet is how it makes things that are far away close, right? It it collapses some of the barriers, impediments, the artificial distinctions between us and others. There's something I think kind of impersonal about shopping online. You know, it's like, here, buy this stuff, this is what it costs. But with whatnot It's totally different. I don't know if you've tried it yet, but whatnot is this live shopping app. That's just really fun to use. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform. Beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury, fashion, even cookies. Sellers are building real thriving businesses. Anyone can sell, your business can be big or small, can be just starting.
And people selling on Whatnot sell 10 times more than on other marketplaces. Because you're not just listing products, you're building real connections with buyers. Whatnot users spend something like an hour a day on the app. They're not just browsing. They're engaged. They're buying. They're coming back. You go live, you show up products in real time, and you turn what you love into real income.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why does Ryan Holiday say no one is excused from studying?
0:00–2:34
2
How does the Daily Stoic “Read to Lead” challenge help people become better readers?
2:34–5:03
3
What historical examples illustrate the importance of reading for leaders and soldiers?
5:03–9:16
4
Why does Holiday argue that most people don’t read enough and what’s the cost?
9:16–13:05
5
How can you choose the right books and avoid reading every bestseller?
13:05–16:22
6
What is the step‑by‑step reading system Holiday uses to retain and apply knowledge?
16:22–20:14
7
Why should great readers take notes, organize ideas, and turn them into a “commonplace book”?
20:14–22:15
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Daily Stoic
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